You have to remember two things

1. Many Americans live in suburbs where 3 miles might get you out of the suburb

2. America’s car brained infrastructure design means most places have incredibly shit accommodations for pedestrians

This might just be everyone saying they like hiking these days. It’s great, but is also sure to pull down that number.

In most of the popular hiking spots in my state, once you go a mile down a trail there’s like nobody around.

IMO it’s more about duration than mileage. You can’t call it a hike if it’s under an hour, that’s a walk. I’m of the opinion that if you can do it comfortably without drinking water it’s probably a walk. That said, three miles can definitely be a hike, there are plenty of trails in the northeast US that will give you >2000 feet of elevation gain in that distance.

A hike should be 6 minimum, 8 ideally. Doing something like the Appalachian Trail will have you doing like 15-20/day though.

Hold on, you mean a “hike in nature”-hike?

3 miles doesn’t get you anywhere

3 miles, isn’t that like 5 kilometres? We did longer hikes in third grade.